The NES cabinet in its finished form! The gorgeous homemade cabinet we featured before, as it turns out, had more work done on it after that iconic picture was taken. Once again, I entreat you to peep the setup, with links to pictures from owner/creator Will’s site:

• Custom Mario, Link, Samus, and even Howard and Nester artwork painted by owner Will’s mom? Check.
• Cupholders? Check.
• Side-mounted pockets for magazines, instructions, and even index cards with cheat codes on them? Check!
• Pad to maintain distance between two NES Advantages? Check!!
• Star Wars action figures? Check!!!

This thing only got more awesome in its finished state. I love how every inch of this cabinet is built specifically for something related to the NES experience. Though Will sold off his games for college, this story has what I consider a happy ending: his parents kept the cabinet, and it now resides in his house where he and his lucky family get to see it all the time.

tags / nes / arcade / nintendo fun club / nes max / nes advantage / jc

Famicom BPS-Max controller. In the US, the Max was a first-party Nintendo product, but, like the Power Pad, it originated as a third-party device, originally sold by Tetris publisher Bullet Proof Software.

I don’t know how people feel about the Max these days, but I love everything about it — the grips, the tiny size, the unique and almost completely pointless disc-based D-pad. As far as I know, the Max stands alone in that design, which probably says a lot about how other people feel about it, given the influence every other Nintendo controller had on future generations.

More than anything, I love the dedicated turbo buttons.

This new-in-box BPS Max (for use with Famicom only!) is available on eBay for $40.

tags / nes max / bps max / famicom / bullet proof software / controller / jc